Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-02-04

=. ~ sluo ~ 70 heaven. Tho man who |
~ ~, me deep affection Of his heat accents.
accept Him is lost. "0e' 4o'
l believe in both the Heidelbero aud
Westminster catechisms. and 7 w;sh na,.
all DID, but you may believe in NOTHING tbeu
contaln except the one idea that Christ
came 10 save sinners, and that you are one
Q. them, and you are instantly rescued.
II Non can come in on the grand old shin.
would rather have you get aboard. bnt f
you can find only piece of wood as lono
as the human body, or piece as wide no
the outspread human arms, and either of
them Is piece of the cross. come in on
tnat piece. Tens of thousands of people
are to-day kept out Of the kingdom Of God
because they cannot believe everything.
am talking with q man thoughtful
aoout ms soul, who has lately travelled
tnrongn New England and passed the
night at And6ver. He says to me: 81
cannot believe that in this life the destiny
Is lrrevocably fixed; think there will be
another opportunity of repentance after
DEATH" say TO him: .sMy brother. what
has that to do with you? Don't you realize
that the man who waits for another chance
after death, when he has a good chance
before death, is astark fool? Had not YOU
better take the plank that is thrown to YOU
now and head for shore rather than wait
for plank that may by invisible hands be
thrown to you after you IRE dead? DO rs
you please; but as for myself, with pardon
for ell my sins offered me now, and all the
Joys Of time and eternity offered me now,
instantly take them rather than run the
risk of such other chance as wise men
think they can peel off or twist out of q
Scripture passage that has for all the
Christian centuries been interpreted an
other way"
You say: Il do not like Princeton theol-
ogy, Or New Haven theology, or Andover
theology" do not ask you on baard either
OF the great men-of-war, their portfolios
filled with the great siege guns of ecclesi-
astical battle. But do ask yop to take the
one plank of the gospel that you do believe
in and strike out for the pearl strung beach
of heaven.
Says some other man: "Iwould attend to
religion If was quite sure about the doc
tine of election and free agency, but that
mixes me all up." Those things used to
bother me, but ]. have no more perplexity
about them, for say to myself: IF love
Christ and live good, honest, useful life,
J am elected to be saved; and if do not
love Christ, and live bad life, will be
damned, aud all the theological seminaries
of the universe cannot make it any differ
ent." 1aoundered a long while in the sea
of sin and doubt, and it was as rough as
the Mediterranean on the fourteenth night,
when they threw the grain overheard, but 1
saw there was mercy for sinner, and that
plank took, and have been warming my
self by tho bright fire on the shore for three
decades.
While am talking to another man about
n ia cNNy1 ha kallc Ir1r n,t
Christian because do not believe there is
any hell at ALL" All! don't you? Do all
the people, Of all beliefs end no belief at
all, of good morals and bad morals, 90
straight to happy heaven? Do the holy
and the debauched have the same destina-
ton? At midnight in hallway the owner
of house and a burglar meet each other,
and they both fire, and both are wounded,
but the burglar dies in five minutes, and
the owner of the house lives woek after.
Will the burglar be at the gate of heaven
waiting when the HORSEPOWER comes in?
Will the debauchee and the libertine go
right in among the families Of heaven? I
wonder if Herod is playing on the banks
of the River of Life with the children he
massacred. I wonder if Charles Guiteau
shooting at mark. I do not now
controvert it, although must say
that for such miserable heaven
have no admiration. But the Bible
does not say: believe in perdition and
be saved" Because all are saved, accord
! ing to your theory, that ought not to keep
you from loving and serving Christ. Do
not refuse to come ashore because all the
others, according to your theory. are going
to get ashore. You may have different
theory about chemistry, about astronomy,
| about the atmosphere, from that which
others adopt, but you are not therefore him
! dered from action. Because your theory
of air is different you do not refuse to
breathe. Because your theory about the
stellar system is different, you do not re-
should the fact that your theological theo-
ries are different, hinder you from acting
| upon what you know? If you have not a
| whole ship fashioned in the theological dry
docks 10 bring you to wharfage, you have
! at least plank. "Some on broken pieces
of the ship"
"But don't believe in REVEALS" Then
go to your room, and all alone with your
door locked give your heart to God and
| Join some church where the thermometer
never gets higher than fifty in the shade.
"But do not believe in baptism!" Come in
without it and settle that matter afterward.
"But there are SO many inconsistent
Christians" Then come in and show
them by good example how professors
ought to act. But don't believe in the
Old Testament" Then come in on the
New. "But don't like the Book of Ro-
Mans" Then come in on Matthew or
Luke. Refusing to come to Christ, whom
you admit TO be the Savior of the lost be-
cause you cannot admit other things, you
are like q man out there in that Medi-
terranean tempest and tossed in the Melita
breakers, refusing to come ashore un-
ill he can mend the pieces of the broken
ship. 1 hear him say: II won't go
in on any of these planks until know in
what part of the ship they belong. When l
can get the windlass in the right place, and
the sails set, and that keel piece where it
belongs, and that floor timber right, and
these ropes untangled, will go ashore. I
am an old sailor and know all about ships
for forty years, and Us soon as can get the
I vessel afoat in good shape will come in"
| A man drifting by on o piece Of wood over
hears him and says: "You will drown be-
| fore you get that ship reconstructed. Bet
ter do as 1 am doing. I know nothing
about ships, and never saw one before l
came ON board this, and I cannot swim @
| t.1 - IN, noino ashOra on this ahiy-